Tuesday, January 9, 2018

I've been a devoted user of Google Docs, Forms, and all things G Suite for more than a decade. I've helped thousands of teachers get started with Google Forms. I tell you all that as a way of saying that it takes a lot for me to be happy with an alternative product. But that's how I feel about the following three aspects of Microsoft Forms.

Feedback Options
I appreciate that I can give feedback to students on each of their responses through the Responses tab on my Microsoft Form. As I view a student's response sheet I can click the comment icon to give the student individualized feedback on one or all of his or her responses. Yes, you can do similar things in Google Forms, but I just found this a bit more streamlined in Microsoft Forms.

Video & Image Formatting
Just like Google Forms, Microsoft Forms allows you to use videos and images in your questions. In Microsoft Forms videos are automatically resized to fit in the space allotted. Images are displayed to right of the text. Microsoft Forms will also let you add alt text to an image. That text will be displayed when a student places his or her cursor over the image. I used that function to provide a clue for the image I used in this form.

Mobile Preview
This might not be a big deal to some people, but I like the option to preview how my form will look to users who are trying to complete it on their phones. Microsoft Forms will show me both a mobile preview and a desktop preview.

One Thing I Wish Microsoft Forms Had
Microsoft Forms has support for branching logic that direct users to specific questions. However, it doesn't appear to have support for making independent sections or pages like Google Forms does. To be fair, I'm new to using Microsoft Forms so multiple sections might be a feature that I just haven't discovered yet.

In today's age of clickbait headlines and increasingly polarized news reporting, it is more important than ever to teach students to be critical thinkers. One of the ways that we can do that is to teach them about logical fallacies and how they are used to try to win an argument.

formRecycler is a free Google Forms Add-on that I wrote about in a blog post yesterday morning. If you haven't seen it yet, formRecycler is an Add-on that will let you pick questions from your existing Google Forms to reuse in a new Google Form.

Facilitating on-site workshops and giving keynotes at conferences is one of the ways that I am able to fund Free Technology for Teachers and, in turn, future college tuition costs for my daughters. For 2018 I have developed some new standard offerings to go along with the custom workshops that I am always happy to develop for your school. You can book me for either by sending an email to richard (at) byrne.media or by completing the form on my work with me page.

Here are the new workshops and keynotes I'm offering in 2018:

Built to Last - Identifying What Works in Educational Technology
In the last decade I've seen thousands of educational technology tools and programs. Some come and go quickly while others stand the test of time. In this presentation I feature not only the tools that stand the test of time, but the characteristics to look for in choosing the next educational technology tool to use in your classroom.

Edupreneurship 101 - Turning Your Teaching Skills Into Extra Income
It's hard to be a good teacher when you're worried about paying your bills. I know that because I spent two years doing that before I figured out that I had some skills that could help me earn a little extra money online while still doing the job that I loved. In this workshop I will share the strategies and tools used by me and other teachers to turn our teaching skills into extra income.

The Past, Present, and Future of AR & VR in Education
This research-based presentation offers an overview of how augmented reality and virtual reality has been used in education for more than two decades. Attendees will walk away with an understanding of how to use these immersive technologies in their classrooms.

DIY App Creation
Not that long ago creating a mobile app required extensive coding skills and knowledge of programming. Today, there are many tools that make it possible for most teachers and students to develop their own functioning apps without any prior programming experience. Participants in this workshop will develop an app.